Democrats are finally purging the most destructive force in their party: the uncompromising progressives. With Kucinich now promising to vote for any Health Care Reform bill, we're done with distracting discussions of state Single Payer, the Public Option or Universal Care, and can focus on winning.
Kos points out that our best weapon against the likes of Kucinich is the primary challenge. Progressive hold-outs like him betray their constituents and weaken their party.
Meanwhile, President Obama has pitched a no-hitter. Of the 77 progressive Democrats who pledged they would never approve a Health Care Reform bill without a public option, the number whose pledge could be trusted was zero. In this one astonishingly perverted regard, Eric Massa left Congress last week with more integrity than any of them. Obama has won, the party is practically united, and the world no longer has any doubt what a pledge from a Democrat means.
By "practically united" I mean that somehow the right wing Democrats like Bart Stupak weren't whipped into submission the way Kucinich and the 70+ strongest progressives were - not by Markos nor Obama. ...
Predictably, that whipping preference means the right wingers have veto power over the Health Care Reform bill that those uncompromising cooperative progressives don't.
So let's cut to the chase. If say, Rep Bart Stupak and his Pro-Life kin want a bill that effectively repeals the Roe vs Wade right to choose, what has this approach bought us? If Rep. Lynn Woolsey (who already gets threatening messages from the White House when her Progressive Caucus opposes a bill) says in good conscience she can't vote for such a bill, she can be attacked for defeating our signature bill and wrecking the party.
And if Kucinich learns of such a "compromise" and refuses to endorse nuking Roe vs Wade or some other right wing demand, we can expect Markos, Rahm, and Obama to attack him for both flip-flopping and disloyalty. That's where progressives stand in today's party.
(Markos is a genius. I'm sure when major legislation is being negotiated, there's a great strategic reason for Democrats to undermine and attack progressives, rather than build on public opinion (which favors Kucinich's view of the public option) and leave progressives free to veto bad bills. I must have missed the strategy memo I guess.)
Meanwhile, good riddance to those stubborn progressives! They undermine everyone's understanding of what Democrats do.